title: Resilience and depressive symptoms in mainland Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Immigrants are highly vulnerable to the development of psychological problems such as depressive symptoms, which calls for further study of immigration in the Eastern context. Identification of factors that protect against depressive symptoms would inform interventions to enhance immigrant adaptation.
  
  
  METHODS
  This survey recruited 1,205 individuals who are adult immigrants from mainland China to Hong Kong. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to screen them for depressive symptoms. Participants also completed assessments for acculturative stress, discrimination and rejection, and personal and family resilience.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that participants reported considerable depressive symptoms. After controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, acculturative stress, and discrimination and rejection, personal resilience was associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Family resilience added significant explanation of variance to predict depressive symptoms over and above the individual variables, including personal resilience.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings draw attention to the role of resilience as a protective factor against mental distress when facing adversities, while highlighting the central importance of family as an emotional resource for immigrant adjustment in the Chinese context. As personal resilience can increase with interventions, our results can inform trials to enhance adaptation among mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Xiaonan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Sunita M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: Iris K F
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Tai Hing
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Lam
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011287:Prejudice / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012307:Risk Factors; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires